' 24 Minstrels of the Winter. 



Among the rarer birds that visit us in winter, and by cheer- 

 ful notes break the sullen monotony of the dreary season, the 

 silktail, the grosbeak, the snowflake, crossbill, mountain finch, 

 and mountain linnet, may occasionally be seen and heard by 

 observers well situated, and the counties of Surrey and Hants 

 are more often favoured, perhaps, by these rare visitants than 

 any other parts of England. I used, when a boy, to catch in 

 the meadows of my native village of Stepney, meally redpoles 

 and greenfinches in numbers greater than I care now to 

 remember, especially as the remembrance includes not only 

 the catching, but the unhappy fate of those birds ; for we used 

 sometimes to harness them with twine and have them at school 

 with us all day, sometimes hidden in our sleeves, when the 

 dominie's eyes were to be deceived, and at other times thrust 

 down a boy's neck when there was opportunity for a trick, or a 

 piece of vengeance. Traps and cages were made of impossible 

 materials, a dozen or more unhappy prisoners were pent up in 

 cages not large enough for one to move about freely in, and left 

 to fight, or starve, or perish as they might. We are some- 

 times beguiled into a wish that we could be " boys once more," 

 but there is no man with a spark of true humanity who would 

 purchase back the joys of boyhood if it were inevitable that 

 we must also be as cruel as a boy ; and, alas, it must be said 

 that as a rule, boys arc cruel, implacably cruel, and inventively 

 wanton in inflicting cruelty on animals, and from the act de- 

 riving a pleasure so intense, as to prevent reflection and stifle 

 the voice of conscience, which has some force, even in 

 infants. The redpole (Linaria jpusilla, Blyth) is both resident 

 and migratory ; in the midland it is common throughout the 

 year, frequenting groves and streams ; in other places it ap- 

 pears* only as a winter visitant, audit is in this character only 

 I have made its acquaintance. The flocks we used to thin made 

 their appearance in December and January, on the site now occu- 

 pied by the Metropolitan Cemetery and the town which joins it 

 on one side, and which in my " boyish days " consisted of 

 meadows and market gardens. There we used to see them in 

 vast flocks, shifting about in compact masses, and uttering a 

 pleasing but confused song, as soon as they alighted on the 

 hedgerows and bushes, from which, on the slightest alarm, 

 they would take wing, and in their progress mingle sundry 

 call-notes with small snatches of song. On the other hand, 

 the greenfinch {Loxia chlorw, Linn.) has always been known to 

 me us loss gregarious in its habits than the redpole, or, indeed, 

 any other of the finches ; and though it is a resident, it is only 

 M a winter visitant I have had opportunities of observing it 

 sufficiently bo become familiar with its habits. It is a beautiful 

 and lively bird, no whit less attractive in habit and song 



